If you missed Take the Money and Run? – a discussion-packed day on ethics and arts funding – you also missed our sneak preview of Artwash the new book written by Mel Evans. Fear not! Mel recorded this short intro so you don’t have to miss out… 20 April 2015...

Nearly three years after we first set out to find out how much BP gave Tate, the galleries have finally revealed BP’s contribution between 1990-2006. The figures range between £150,000-£330,000 a year – even less than we expected. When I tried to lay the numbers out on a graph for comparison, it was hard to even...

16-25? Angry about the injustice you see around you? Come shake tings up with performance poets, film-makers, musicians & activists on a free 5 day course to creatively express frustrations & concerns about the world you live in.

Our allies in Azerbaijan are under attack, right now, and we are asking people to send them solidarity messages and inspirational quotes. On 5 December investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested in Baku, Azerbaijan. As Khadija was bundled into a car camera flashes popped, people jostled and her friends banged on...

We’ve written a manifesto titled Energy beyond Neoliberalism: “This is a call for energy democracy. Not energy security or energy separation. A survivable and just energy future means breaking the grip of elite interests on our energy systems, ending dependency, increasing autonomy, building diverse power structures through which we can...

Back in Spring, the Kilburn Manifesto team asked whether we’d like to submit a chapter on energy to their project. Edited by Soundings founding editors Stuart Hall, Doreen Massey, and Mike Rustin, After Neoliberalism seeks to open up space to debate alternatives to current dominant neoliberal systems. Most of our...

It is genocide. I accuse the oil companies of practising racism because they do in Ogoni what they do not do in other parts of the world. Ken Saro-Wiwa, 1993 On November 10th 1995, Nigerian writer and campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight colleagues were executed by the then military government...

Today we’re in court with Tate over a long running struggle to get them to say just how much sponsorship money they’re getting from BP. Working alongside Freedom of Information specialists Request Initiative, we’ve put a lot of time and energy in to trying to find out this figure, and...

This week sees the publication of our latest briefing Polluted Promises, How Shell failed to clean up in Ogoniland, based on research done on the ground in the Niger Delta in October 2013 by our campaigner Sarah Shoraka, with allies from the Delta. The new report and research was covered...

The Niger Delta is one of the most polluted places on earth, laid to waste by an oil industry that does not respect people or the environment. It wasn’t always that way. Before Shell first discovered oil in Nigeria in 1956, it was a globally important wetland habitat with rich biodiversity, providing livelihoods...

UK foreign policy aims to lock North African natural gas into the European and British grids and is heavily influenced by arms and fossil fuel interests. As a result, the Conservative government has courted the Algerian regime and supported arms sales between British companies and Algeria as well as encouraging...

Today Shell announced it was canceling its 2014 drilling in the Alaskan Arctic. This is a guest blog by Faith Gemmill, Executive Director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), on the court decision that forced Shell’s hand, and the Indigenous rights context behind it. Last week the Court of...

Since I joined Platform in July, I have seen the high-spirited Farzana passionately preparing for the “Shake! – Young Voices in Arts, Media, Race & Power course”, organising its different activities and coordinating with other facilitators (Ed, Zena and Sai) in order to make it even better than the previous...

In this illustrated leaflet we follow the route of the Euro-Caspian Mega Pipeline – meeting people who are talking out against the pipeline and the impact it will have on their lives. The leaflet joins the dots between climate change, human rights abuses and fuel poverty. It talks about the...

The new Paperback edition has a brand new Afterword… “★★★★★…The Oil Road opens the lid on the often-shady energy economy, weaving absorbing travel reportage into powerful investigative journalism…. If you want to know why oil matters, read this book.” – Time Out (book of the week) “An elegantly written travel book…will...

At a time of growing unease within and without the cultural sector about the involvement of oil companies with the nation’s most high profile galleries, Not if but when – Culture Beyond Oil brings together responses of artists and activists to the debate in a unique collaboration between artists, activists,...

Oil runs through every sector of society. London, our city, is one of the global centres of the oil industry. Oil companies use the city to extract a combination of financial, political, legal and technological services that enable them to produce, pump, transport, refine and sell oil and gas. For...

Art can do things that information can’t. Art takes our mind to new places, reaches our heart, and draws on our gut feelings. Platform’s art connects people to global stories and issues on an emotional level. From performance to DJ-ing, social sculpture to sound art, creative writing to video, we...

You can help make our work happen! Join Platform’s network of Sustainers by making a regular monthly donation and receive our latest publications. Your regular gift is invaluable to us as it allows us to plan for the future with confidence. As a Sustainer you will be invited to meet...

Platform is different. We combine art, activism, education and research in one organisation. This approach enables us to create unique projects driven by the need for social and ecological justice. Platform’s current campaigns focus on the social, economic and environmental impacts of the global oil industry. Our pioneering education...

Latest from the Platform Blog

This is a guest blog by Hannah Smith. A shorter version of this piece appeared in Diva Magazine’s blog. A strange thing happened the very first time I went to a pride march; usually a chatterbox, I fell silent. Watching the procession I was overwhelmed by a connection to the queer community – my community […]

Recently there has been a flurry of Nigerian media headlines stating that oil drilling in Ogoniland could soon re-start. I have tried to dig deeper to assess what is currently known and what questions remain. Has Shell sold assets in Ogoniland? So far, there have been no news stories outside of Nigeria about Shell’s plans […]

If you missed Take the Money and Run? – a discussion-packed day on ethics and arts funding – you also missed our sneak preview of Artwash the new book written by Mel Evans. Fear not! Mel recorded this short intro so you don’t have to miss out… 20 April 2015 is the fifth anniversary of […]

In November I participated in a seminar* on arts policy and heard writer, performance poet, and Freelance Cultural Director of National Black Arts Alliance, SuAndi give an arresting paper to an almost totally white audience of arts practitioners, funders, and policymakers. She generously agreed to it being published here. “I have told this before Many times Too […]

Nearly three years after we first set out to find out how much BP gave Tate, the galleries have finally revealed BP’s contribution between 1990-2006. The figures range between £150,000-£330,000 a year – even less than we expected. When I tried to lay the numbers out on a graph for comparison, it was hard to even get BP’s contribution to be visible […]

This is a guest post by poet and Shake! facilitator Zena Edwards. You can find more information about the next Shake! intensive course (16-20 February 2015) and how to apply here, and find Zena on Twitter: @ZenaEdwards Shake Youth Arts and Activism project has a new intensive course brewing. From Monday 16th February, we shall be […]

As the London Stock Exchange opened at 09.00 on Tuesday, 16th December, BP’s shareprice was down to 365 pence. It was the bottom of a long slide from 448 pence on the 21st November and investors in the company looked concerned that BP was failing badly. Shares in BP have lost 25% of their value […]

What will we remember about the oil industry in 2014? Aside from falling oil prices and ongoing debates about fracking (did you know New York state just banned it?), there are more and more signs this year that ‘social licence’ is becoming the industry’s largest challenge (like this Canadian industry expert points out). Where would oil companies be without […]

Our allies in Azerbaijan are under attack, right now, and we are asking people to send them solidarity messages and inspirational quotes. On 5 December investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested in Baku, Azerbaijan. As Khadija was bundled into a car camera flashes popped, people jostled and her friends banged on the car roof and shouted […]

This is a guest post by Tate Member Oliver Grant. Oliver came to Tate Members’ AGM last week and asked Tate Director Nick Serota to respond to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s call for “people of conscience to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.” Oliver reflects on Serota’s response. The AGM was a […]